so for all you lovely readers who don't know, i absolutely love the 1950s and 1960s. my love for these eras is what inspires almost all of the clothing i make for myself. so, i was really excited when i found this awesome dress pattern by Simplicity!

for my first version of the dress i opted for the view made from the plaid material. this view features a flap-type band around the top of the dress. since i have an obsession with anything cherries, i decided to make the first version from this awesome cherry print cotton i bought at Joann. to jazz up, the top band flap i added red piping. i love piping too, and the little hint of fun it can add to any project!

as another bonus, i added pockets to both versions of this dress. i mean, pockets only make a dress even better!

a couple changes i made to this first version of the dress were: 1) doing box pleats at the front and back, instead of regular pleats and 2) doing a centered zipper, instead of a lapped one. i don't know what it is, but for some reason i'm not a fan of regular pleats...but i do love me a good box pleat! plus, box pleats are so easy to do.

to finish off the dress, i did a simple blind hem.

now i can enjoy another retro-inspired piece of clothing made by my own hands! (ps - the dress isn't lopsided, leave it to me to stand weirdly.)

once i had the cherry version of Simplicity 2176 made, i knew i HAD to use this awesome lime green pique cotton when i saw it in Hancock Fabrics. once again, i decided to use some black piping to jazz the dress up a bit. with this version of the dress, i didn't do the flap-like band around the top. for the piping i added it to the outer edges of the straps, around the bottom of the top band, and along the princess seams. also, lesson learned, put the piping in away from the edge of the fabric, instead of making it flush with the cut edges of the pieces. i didn't realize until it was too late that i should've done that, so the bodice fits a smidgen big, but not too much to bother me or be noticeable.

i also added the awesome pockets again and did my infamous box pleats.

with this version i decided to go ahead and do the lapped zipper.

to finish off the dress i ironed up the hem then hemmed it by hand using a slip stitch.

now i have two versions of this awesome dress, and am looking to make more if i can get my hands on some awesome printed fabric. prints i would love to use with this dress pattern include: